


Cutting Strings

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Bad Parenting, F/M, Other, Reader-Insert, dick dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 21:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Cutting Strings

Leaving home at the age of 18 had been unbelievably difficult for a number of reasons, but exactly what you needed regardless. Your mother was an amazing woman, but your father, not so much. 

It was difficult to live in the shade of one of the world’s top neurosurgeons and yet not be anywhere near as intelligent. You were average when it came to IQ, no matter how hard you studied, so constantly hearing what an idiot you were wore on your psyche to the point where you couldn’t live at home anymore, even if that meant putting yourself through college without your father’s money.

Waitress jobs, random babysitting and pet-sitting jobs, and the occasional freelance assignment put you through community college, and eventually you obtained a job as a manager of a department store that you enjoyed a fair amount and allowed you to pay the bills. 

Then you’d met Spencer in a deli down the street from the FBI and the rest had been history. The two of you had been dating for over a year and a half, and had instantly adopted his team as an extended family of sorts, especially Rossi, who was more of a father to you in the time you’d known him than your father had been your whole life.

And today was like any other day. Spencer had a lunch break and had called to see if you wanted to meet up for pizza before he decided to go back. Rossi decided to come with him, while the rest of the team went opposite ways for whatever food they wanted to eat. “Hi, honey,” Rossi said, enveloping you in a fatherly hug. Just prior to meeting you, he’d realized he had an adult daughter Joy, and ever since then the fatherly pride oozed from every pore of his body. 

Spencer grabbed your hand and pulled you in for a kiss on the head. “Hi, love. I’ve missed you.”

“You just saw her this morning?” Rossi joked, sticking his finger in his mouth.

Spencer just smiled. “Yea, well I still miss her.”

“I miss you too,” you said, purposely making a kissy face in Spencer’s direction that made Rossi gag again. As you headed into the pizza place, you heart stopped in your throat.

“What’s wrong?” Rossi asked. He followed your line of vision until it fell on a distinguished looking man with salt and pepper hair and an air about him that just screamed dickbag. 

Spencer squeezed your hand tightly. “Is that your father?”

As a pit formed in your stomach, you nodded. “Oh hello,” he said flatly. He had looked to the side and caught your eye. There was no love lost for him when you had left. It was hard on your mom, but not him. “How are you doing?” He didn’t actually care; it was a social obligation he felt he needed to adhere to. 

“I’m okay,” you said, your voice straining in your throat. “Have a good job. Pay my bills. Have a great boyfriend. By the way, this is him, Dr. Spencer Reid.”

“Dr.?” He asked, obviously impressed. “You know my daughter could’ve been a doctor if she’d applied herself more, but I guess she was fine being the dumb one in the family.” If only jail weren’t a reality, I would punch you in the dick right now.

Spencer’s hand immediately started sweating in yours; he wasn’t confrontational, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let that slide. “Maybe she didn’t want to be a doctor. Maybe, for her, there are other things more important than a career. Family, friends. That sort of thing. Also, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with someone who doesn’t want a high-powered job. It’s not for everyone. It was barely for me and I was thrust into it at the age of 12.”

“Twelve,” he said again, equally as impressed. Again, he was talking as if you weren’t right there. “What do you do for a living? And how did you cross paths with my daughter?”

“Stop calling me that,” you snapped.

He looked toward you. “What? My daughter? You are.”

“You’ve never given a damn about me because I didn’t make you look good. You’ve never claimed me as your own before, you don’t get to do it now because I happen to have an extremely intelligent boyfriend, who by the way, has three Ph.D.s and an IQ of 187, which I believe is 20 points higher than yours if I remember correctly.”

“I work as a profiler for the FBI, Dr. L/N, and yes to the three degrees and IQ. I also have an eidetic memory and can read 20,000 words per minute, and frankly, I think you should be ashamed of yourself for the way you made her feel when she was growing up. That fact that someone as detestable as you was allowed to procreate boggles my mind, and for a man with a 187 IQ, that takes a lot. She’s smart, beautiful, kind, funny, which is more than I can say for you. You may have intelligence on your side but that’s about all I can see.”

Your father, or sperm donor rather, was about to say something back, when Spencer said something you never imagined. “I am a Doctor, and although I’m not a proctologist, I know an asshole when I see one.”

Rarely speechless, his mouth dropped open, and then he continued to call you a disappointment. Spencer was livid, constantly turning to the side and kissing the top of your head, while he and Rossi went at it. “Personally, I believe you should leave your daughter alone. Forever,” Rossi said. “She’s more of a daughter to me anyway.”

“Who the hell are you anyway?” he asked.

You nearly burst. “His name is Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi, one of the founding members of the BAU and one of the best criminal profilers in the world. And he’s right, he’s been more of a father to me in the last year and a half than you have been my entire life. DNA and money don’t make a father. Love does, and you fucking sucked at that.”

“With the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth, your ass must be really jealous,” Rossi said. He was so proud of himself and you couldn’t help but laugh.

You placed your hands on Rossi’s and Spencer’s shoulders. “Now as much as I love that my man and my adoptive father have been sticking up for me, it’s me who gets the last word. I have no siblings. You and mom are separated. I love mom, but I don’t love you and you don’t love me, let’s be honest. You never have. Don’t talk to me. Don’t send me cards. Don’t do me any favors, because they always came with a stipulation anyway. I managed on my own without your money which may not be considered “intelligence” but it’s something. Let mom claim me. I’ll claim myself actually. Pretend you don’t have any kids. I’d prefer it that way.”

And with that, the three of you walked away and onto the food line as your sperm donor walked out the door. The second he had, you burst into tears you were so frustrated. Spencer enveloped you in his arms, while Rossi placed your order. “You know what he says isn’t true, right?” he said, rubbing your back. 

“I know I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I’m not dumb, and even if I was that doesn’t give him the right to be so horrible to me,” you sobbed, your breaths catching in your throat. “It’s hard not to take all that shit to heart when you grew up hearing it every day for 18 years.”

Rossi spoke softly, not wanting anyone else to hear in case they didn’t realize that he was joking, but he knew you’d know. “I mean, I may be a law enforcement officer, but I could probably find a creative way to kill him.”

You snorted through the tears, taking a tissue from Spencer and wiping your eyes. “He isn’t worth you going to jail.” After a few moments, your slices came out of the oven and you sat down at a table that had just been vacated. “I just…it’s hard not to believe something when you’re told it day in and day out. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome, right?”

Spencer hadn’t really thought of it that way, but yes. “Long-term exposure to any ideology would instill it in your brain, so yes,” he said. “Your IQ may not be as high as his, but that doesn’t matter to anyone that matters to you. You’re a good person. You are intelligent. You’re funny and kind, and you somehow didn’t turn into a giant dickhead even though you came from one.”

Rossi echoed Spencer’s statements, saying he was disgusted that a father would even think those things about his own child, no less voice them. “And, I promise, killing him is still on the table…I know guys.”

Rossi came from Long Island, you were sure he knew a lot of guys. “I bet you do,” you replied. “But he’s not worth it. You both are though.” You were sitting between them and rubbed both of their arms. “Thank you again. It means a lot that you stuck up for me.”

“And one day, you won’t have to bear his name anymore,” Spencer said with a smile.

You raised on eyebrow. “Really? You gonna marry me?”

“I think I might just,” he said. “You are the whole package.”

As if on cue, Rossi stuck his finger in his mouth again. “Get a room.”


End file.
